Meet Our Humans

At AutoUncle we're committed to creating The Most Human Company. And that starts with one person at a time.

We think there’s no better way to learn about who we are and how we work than to hear directly from our team members. 

So we asked some of our awesome colleagues like Farah to share some of their thoughts and impressions so far in their journey with Autouncle, and what being part of The Most Human Company means to them. These are their words. 

Farah Montesa is a Customer Success Manager for AutoUncle partnerships. She has been working at the Aarhus, Denmark office since she started in February, 2020. The profile below is compiled from an interview and has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

If you're interested in working with great humans like Farah, check out our openings.

Last updated January 2021. 

Taking a hands on approach

Getting my job at AutoUncle is a really funny story. So one of my former coworkers is also a massage therapist, and whenever she was in Aarhus she would come to AutoUncle to work. And one day last year — just as I was finishing up my maternity leave — she was giving the CEO a massage and he was telling her how much trouble he was having finding the right person for a role. He told her what kinds of skills he was looking for, and she just suggested he talk to me and sent him my LinkedIn profile!

Johan invited me in for a coffee meeting, but we ended up talking for over two hours. It was pretty intensive with a lot of questions, and he invited me to come back the following day to meet some of the other people on the team. After that all we had to do was sign the contract. 

I joke that I got the job because the CEO was in such a good mood from the massage. But to be honest it was actually one of the toughest interviews I think I've ever been on. Johan asked some really great questions — questions I’d never been asked before during an interview — assessing my skills and how I work under pressure and things like that. So even though it wasn’t very formal, it felt very thorough. 

I knew what I wanted (and didn’t want)

At one point during the interview, Johan shared some information about the Most Human Company. He took me through some slides about the 5Cs, the AutoUncle values, and the mission. And that really made me pay attention. I was already interested in the work, but when they started talking about the culture my ears just kind of perked up. 

I’ve had jobs before where the work environment was just pretty toxic. So I knew already what I wanted to avoid, and I was really very critical about the places where I was interviewing. But I knew there must be some places out there where it’s not toxic. And I’m so glad because since I’ve started it really has been different. I don’t think I’ve ever met a nicer group of people. 

Compassion, empathy and the Most Human Company

The concept of the Most Human Company was extremely appealing to me. I was really curious about it, I think because I was looking for something different from what I’ve experienced before. I was glad to find a place where people speak respectfully to each other, and to feel like it was okay to make mistakes, to test the limits, to try something new. 

I think it comes down to empathy. And it can be a strange thing to find in a workplace. Like, a person can be empathetic personally, but you don’t really ever hear about it professionally, and you don’t hear it being discussed in the workplace. It’s not something I really thought about before working here. But at AutoUncle compassion is one of the 5Cs. 

So, maybe before if a colleague told me they’re sick and they stay out for a few days, I would say, “I’m sorry, I hope you feel better,” but there’s also some grumbling in the background. This feeling like I have to do her work or something like that — some bad feelings. But you really don’t find that here. Because it could happen to anybody. Any of us could be sick for a few days. But we have this shared understanding of compassion as a value, and that translates into real life practices. So there’s just this atmosphere of compassion and empathy that you don’t often find in the workplace. 

Metrics, mentorship and empowerment

A big part of my job is to make budgets and metrics for my department's complex world. I would use time on a certain budget or graph, but it was still falling short of showing a simple overview. I was extremely hard on myself for not getting this right, it even made me doubt my place in the company. 

I openly discussed this with my manager, who gave me some guidance with my work and with these feelings of inadequacy. Other managers would have taken a more helicopter role and taken the task on themselves, but in this case, I was empowered to do my work and address these emotions. 

Corona days: banding together at a distance

My first couple of months at AutoUncle were a bit special because I had only worked for two weeks and then I had to go to the Philippines for my brother’s wedding. And when I got back we were in Corona lockdown. We had to suddenly switch to working from home, but actually it ended up being fine for us. I think we were still able to work really well together and with our customers. 

And even though we were remote, the culture was still there. There was this feeling like we’re in this together. We have to weather the storm together, and we don’t want anyone to lose their jobs. So I never felt insecure. 

It helped that during that time, my department had some great months. We were totally surprised with what we were able to bring in because we expected everything to go down, but it didn’t, it actually went way up. 

One AutoUncle vibe

I do feel like even though there’s an office in Italy and an office in Germany, there’s still a cohesion within the company. Maybe it’s because we all use the same Slack channels and are used to working remotely. In any case, when good things happen in the Italian office, they’re celebrated here. There’s also a lot of knowledge sharing between the offices. It really doesn’t feel like they’re that far away. It’s not like there’s an Italian AutoUncle and a Danish AutoUncle… we’re all one entity, it’s all one vibe.